Letters 1 part 43/55

He, then, who says that he is not circumscribed in the flesh after our likeness, denies, my blessed brother, that God has appeared in the flesh, setting himself against the Gospel of Christ, and is equal to the Jews.

For where then would it hold true that he became like us in all things, if he is not depicted in an image like us? And where would it hold true, 'Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me having'? And where, 'Why do you seek to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth which I heard from the Father'? He, then, who is not circumscribed is clearly neither like us, nor again touched, nor indeed put to death.

But indeed he was put to death, and was touched after the resurrection.

Therefore he is also circumscribable, in an image after our likeness.

But the icon-fighters became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened, since, by denying the icon of Christ, together with that of the Theotokos and of all the saints, they deny the saving economy; and while confessing Christ as even the demons do, they deny him by their works.

so that he may not be believed to be worshiped in his icon.

Thus then, O man of God, is the truth, and thus has it been decreed as doctrine by the apostles and prophets and God-bearing fathers, even if not in these very words, yet indeed through a true consideration of what has been said by them.

For all the doctrinal powers have, as it were, been put forth like seeds in the understandings of the divine oracles, and against the heresies that spring up from time to time the truths piously held as doctrine are marshaled in opposition, being cultivated from that source by the Spirit's motion, and rooting out the tares of impiety.

So then, believing thus, be strong in the Lord, worshiping Christ, and worshiping also his icon; the Theotokos and her icon; the saints and their icons.

since in the icons the prototypes are worshiped, and the honor given to the icon passes on to the prototype, as Saint Basil the Great says.

{To Marianos the spatharios} Your piety draws us to write, finding it profitable, as it says (though I do not think so, since our word, along with our life, is useless), but rather as being carried along by love.

For love, says the Apostle, 'takes no account of evil.'

But however it may be, I yield and am persuaded by our beloved friend, the good man, the all-praiseworthy ruler, the nursling of piety, the offspring of orthodoxy, the man of God, the lover of monks.

Many are your praises, most excellent your achievements.

But do take heed, my lord, how you walk (for this is what the Apostle proclaims), not as unwise but as wise, not as a lover of the flesh but as a lover of God, not as though immortal but as one mindful of departure, that common debt, that boundary which none can pass.

For there is no one, it says, who shall live and not see death.

What then, you might ask, are the characteristics of each of the two? I shall set them forth for you, my friend.

Of the first belong dances, buffooneries, frivolous games, shameful talk, drunkenness, gluttony, distractions of mind, empty vain conceits, incessant adornments, passions for the love of wealth — and the many graver things I leave unsaid out of respect for your authority.

And indeed, 'those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God,' the Apostle has declared.

Come, let me also show you the excellences of the other.

Poverty of spirit, tears of compunction, gentleness, peace, mercy, contemplation of the mind toward God, freedom from love of money, hatred of the world, self-sufficiency, self-control.

According to the measure of strength given to each, to love the Lord who made us beyond spouse, beyond children, beyond parents, beyond brothers, beyond, simply, all things — the Lord who gave himself up to death for each and every one of us.

These things, and things like them, belong also to the true Christian.

Do not suppose, my lord, that what has been said applies to the monk alone and not equally to the layman also (though in the monk's case more intensely), except for celibacy and non-possession, in which the layman lies under no condemnation.

Yet even here there are seasons of self-control and laws of sufficiency.

For, it says, 'having food and covering, we shall be content with these; but those who wish to be rich fall into the inescapable pit.'

so that those who have wives may be as though they had none.

Behold, my lord, you have compelled me to announce to you the ordinance of God.

Let us both hasten to be saved.

Sufficient for us is the time already past in our life for carrying out the will of the flesh.

'Now,' says the Apostle, 'is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.'

Behold, the good God awaits our fruit even until our last breath.

May he not say, 'Cut it down; why does it even exhaust the ground?' May he not shut the door against us, with no more opening.

May the devil not take us to his portion, to be punished together with him eternally.

May we not suddenly be snatched away.

How many times have we made pledges that, if we should be delivered from this illness, or this danger, or this affliction, we would live well and serve God sincerely — and then again forgotten our agreements? How long will he bear with us? For how long will he allow it? In any case, it is altogether necessary that a little later we depart from this world.

so that woe may not be ours eternal and unending, but rather that, in a readiness of well-pleasing, we may be counted worthy to reign together with the Lord unto endless ages.

{To Euphrosyne, hegoumene} Now more than ever I welcome your honored self, who wept for the blessed mother, when the steward returned and reported that she had gone to her rest, consoled in the Lord.

at which my humility also was set at ease, being concerned for your affairs as for a sister in Christ.

For it is necessary, my lady, both to mourn naturally for our dearest ones, thereby showing forth love, and, resting upon the doctrine of hope, to be consoled in a manner befitting God — and in neither respect to spoil what is good.

For excessive grief is equal to insensibility.

We are guided by measures and by divine canons, and especially those of us who have taken up the profession of perfection.

The people wept also for Moses, the seer of God, but for forty days; and the patriarch Jacob, together with his children, wept for the admirable Rachel, but for a few days; and so too for Joseph the much-lamented, and for others by others, both in the Old and the New Testament — but for a fixed time, and not forever.

Thus indeed she herself, having done so and doing so now, is praiseworthy before both God and men.

May you always keep in mind her whom you loved, and I strongly advise you to do so — for from this you will become readily moved to compunction, a hater of the world, a lover of God, prepared for that same departure.

What could be more conducive to salvation than this? May you shepherd the flock of God entrusted to you devoutly, as a spiritual mother — not ruling in a merely human manner; setting the example yourself in what pertains to the commandments, not demanding of them more than their strength allows; distributing your love equally to all, and not attaching yourself to one differently than another after the manner of blood-kinship.

Do you see how we have been given law by the Truth itself? But what does the great Peter say? 'And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive the unfading crown of glory.'

How great a thing it will be for you to cry out before the Lord, 'Behold, I and the children whom you have given me!'

'I have not grown weary of following you, nor have I desired the day of man, O Lord.'

You have given all things to God; you have counted all things as refuse, that you might gain Christ.

So then, my lady, may you also bear the afflictions with which those who live a godly life must ever coexist.

For many are the afflictions of the righteous, as holy David proclaims, kindled by the enemy both in the realm of the mind and of the senses.

Do not be ignorant of his devices; turn back his schemes by your prayers.

For our struggle is not against blood and flesh, as the Apostle says, but against the principalities and powers of this present world; and truly it is a matter for spiritual combat to escape their snares.

May you possess a soul in which you may lay up whatever befalls you.

For from this comes both a bridle against sin and divine help.

Such as the sisters, who are under your care.

For they must confide to you their own impulses and toward what each one is more inclined, and you must receive her accordingly — encouraging one, spurring another to zeal, safeguarding another, and, simply, offering to all what is fitting.

And do not by any means grow despondent in this.

God is our shield-companion, the Lord our support.

Let us only begin, and he himself teaches knowledge.

'I am jealous over you,' says the Apostle, 'with a godly jealousy.'

'For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.'

Understand our situation in this way — only as the faintest echo of resemblance — even though we ourselves are otherwise sinners.

And may the God of peace, who has received to himself, in peace and holiness, your mother who was called by the like name, Irene, also grant that you may conduct your life following in her footsteps — he shepherding you as you shepherd, and guiding you as you guide — in Christ our God himself, to whom be glory unto the ages.

not to be classed among those debased through indifference — and it is concerning her that this whole discourse is also meant for you.

But I, dearest friend, do not think that the person you indicated acts and speaks in this way.

For how could one who has been raised to a degree of the hierarchy conduct himself in a lowly, grovelling manner; and how could one who has struggled through confession of faith be borne along together with those who lack zeal and are unconsecrated? For you say that he claims that to occupy an episcopal residence, in which its former holder had committed impiety, hinders nothing, and that to be fed by those compromising men without legitimate episcopate contends in no way with the canon of piety.

And how does this not contend with the truth, when holy David sings, 'Let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head,' and holy Athanasius commands that we have no communion whatsoever with heretics, nor even with those who commune with the impious? And how is it not communion, if one must sit in such a place and be fed from such persons? It is contrary to nature.

Even if one does not sit there, but is nourished from there, the very giving and receiving works communion.

'You Philippians also know that when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, except you only; for even in Thessalonica you sent to my need once and again.'

If then the light of the world declared that to receive once or twice constitutes communion, who then, being of sound mind, would not flee from receiving continually, as being opposed to the light? But your holiness must bring your reminders to the father with fairness and humility of mind; and if he is persuaded, we have gained the father; but if not, let us not betray our own security.

As for the question of children being baptized by these but not by those, I have sent to your honored self the whole letter which I wrote to the same person who raised this accusation about this same matter, deeming it superfluous to speak idly twice on the same subject.

Thus, then, I in my humility think, and I see that the saints think likewise; but let each find things as seems best to him.

But perhaps he who is fed might say that his receiving is from one who thought rightly and was merely reproved.

But this is not yet so, so long as he still holds the episcopate, even if he does not perform the sacred rites nor partake of the holy things.

But true repentance consists in relinquishing the episcopate and departing far off, as indeed some have done — from whom it is harmless to receive, and with whom it is also permissible to eat together.

I have nothing else to say, except to beseech you to pray for my humility, that I may not only speak rightly but also walk uprightly in practice.

{To Thomas the chartoularios} Having read the letter of your honored self, and having learned that your lady wife has departed from this life, I have grieved together with you, my lord, knowing how painful this suffering is.

For the same pain which a sword causes when it cuts the body, the same also does the separation of wedlock cause.

for here too there is one flesh, according to the word of the Lord

but nevertheless it happened, and we have undergone the penalty of separation common to all

and a little later we too shall travel the same road, as you know;

and such is life: for those not yet existing to come into being, and for those who have come into being to be dissolved

We have praised your piety, which through this separation has chosen to live as a solitary and to cleave wholly to the Lord;

For this the letter made clear, and also that a certain monk-brother was present to guide so great a life, whom you again rejected as unsuitable, through the report of George, the good man and household notary — requesting instead that another be given by us, one sufficiently capable of governing souls and preserving the whole monastery.

The praise, then, has fittingly been stated by us beforehand;

but you must first learn what the monastic profession is, and how great the height of that life is, lest, being led in without experience, we should run into danger during the voyage.

Renunciation is nothing other than a profession of the cross and of death.

What is this? According to the word of the Lord: that whoever wishes must renounce all that belongs to him and, taking up the cross, follow after him.

then the admirable character of the commandment shall be preserved.

But he who does not choose in this way, but instead builds a monastery on his own estate and calls in a superior, so that he may become a monk, be guided, and be saved on his own property, does not realize that he labors in vain and to no purpose, and will not find what he seeks, but rather the opposite — absurdities — since such a renunciation is not according to the commandment of the Lord.

It would have been better to be stripped of all material things, to become far removed from what is one's own, and to obtain an excellent superior, and thus to cross the great sea of this present life without danger — not that none of the aforesaid things matter, but rather that from the mere act of building a monastery, putting on the dark habit, and imagining that one has an abbot, one in fact has more of a steward — one who trips and is tripped, who neither saves nor is saved.

'Go forth,' he says, 'out of your land and out of your kindred'; take up the cross upon your shoulders; be spat upon; be struck with fists; drink vinegar; be scourged; go up onto the cross; pour out your blood, whether spiritually or bodily.

But if you cannot bear these things, remain in your house, and strive to be saved through a humbler way of life;

for not even there is salvation without toil, but it too comes through many afflictions.

Do not now bring me counter-examples; whatever is not according to the commandment of the Lord is unqualified, stale, and scandalous — the work of one who renounced the world in that manner, but not the work of a divine ordinance.

But if you desire to build a new monastery, that is not unreasonable; only, once you have handed it over to a man as superior, you must no longer lay your hand upon it, as upon something no longer your own; then the matter will be pleasing to God, and it will meet you as an eternal dwelling place.

To one who chooses in this way, we shall assign that brother whom the petitioner may choose, together with nine other brothers who are willing to submit themselves to the one who leads.

Behold, good friend, I have declared to you the rightful ordinance of the monk.

As for the manner of one establishing a monastery, this is our provision.

For the rest, may the Lord be your comfort, making you wise in all things unto salvation.

{To Niketas, the vicar} Since your right hand, so devoted to the commandments, has brought us gifts of this and that, master, may it also receive what comes from us, the humble ones.

Our offerings are prayers, thanksgivings; and if anything else must be added, admonitions;

And what are these? That you fear God; that you hold right faith; that you abstain from carnal desires, fornication, adultery, uncleanness, and every other licentiousness; that you choose rather to do the things of God; to show mercy to the poor; to spare your servants; to extend a hand to your neighbor; to be humble-minded; to be restrained and not dissipated in the senses, through which the death of sin ascends; to hold to contentment; not to be drunk with wine, in which, as the apostle says, is dissoluteness; not to love money, in which is the root of all evils; to occupy oneself in prayers, in readings, in psalmody, in the remembrance of death, upon which follow compunction of soul and tears (for the present life, O Christians, is one of tears, not of laughter); by no means to swear, nor to bear the most precious name of God upon the mouth as an oath (for it is not possible for one who swears to be saved); to be pure of the envy of Cain, of ruinous slander, of God-hating hatred, of reviling which shuts one out from the kingdom of heaven; to honor the king, one's parents; to love one's spouse as oneself, and to know no other fornicating side, upon which is the wrath of God (for God will judge fornicators and adulterers); to educate one's children in a godly manner and to set oneself as an example of their understanding; and whatever else the word of the commandment requires for the salvation of the soul.

These things, O master, are the recompense for your good provisions — may you not dishonor them, even though they come forth from an unworthy mouth;

for the commandments of God are more precious than all gold and precious stones.

{To Thomas, Patriarch of Jerusalem} How greatly we, the humble, rejoiced at being deemed worthy of the all-wise greeting contained in your letter — this your most eminent Beatitude may readily perceive;

by such heights of praise, from which we fall so far short that we scarcely dare think these words were spoken by you concerning us, but rather that these encomiums belong to some other manly figure — namely, our most divinely-inspired chief shepherd, upon whom every word of praise from everyone might fittingly be kindled.

But how else could your God-imitating and compassionate character have been demonstrated, if not by being displayed triumphantly through paternal affections, like the outburst of the sun scattering its rays abroad? And how else could your like-mindedness and unity of spirit with us have been made known, if not by being distinguished from those who had deserted to the opposing side, whatever sort of men they were? Concerning these matters — even if it is somewhat bold on our part — it is nevertheless just to say (what is this?) that, when the heresy had broken out in persecuting fury, it was fitting that the eminent occupants of the lofty thrones, as allies of the Spirit and full of the apostolic precepts, should have been stirred with brotherly love and should have fittingly extended a compassionate hand to those laboring on behalf of the truth;

for, as it is said, whether one member suffers, all the members suffer together; or whether one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together — the head of the whole ecclesiastical body being, of course, Christ, our true Lord and God.

What need is there even to speak of how greatly the apostolic see of the West benefited us by doing this — strengthening especially the resolve of those who were standing firm (since even a small impetus is wont to instill strength in one who is struggling), and, by a Spirit-moved rebuke, striking down the arrogant boasts of the impious;

What could be more salvific than this? But as for those to whom it was possible to do so, and who did nothing of the sort — quite the contrary, in fact — I, wretched as I am, out of reverence for the angel of your Beatitude, cannot say how great an accusation would lie against them.

But those matters have indeed reached their end, as has already been heard by all — the good God having removed out of the way that accursed dragon, by an extraordinary death, one truly fitting his apostasy; yet present affairs are not as one had supposed;

How so? Because, while the winter has indeed passed, the longed-for spring has not yet come, nor even some measure of clear sky begun to shine — and that too because of the cloud from the east.

For it suffices, I think, to leave the matter at the level of imagery, since your great intellect needs no further instruction, nor again does the present occasion permit us to speak more plainly.

For this reason your sacred dispatches also remain undelivered;

For how could they have been delivered, seeing that we, the humble ones, have been cast off somewhere far from the city, just as others too have been scattered elsewhere among those who have been persecuted? And indeed, contributions, as we had longed for, have not yet come about, except for the one that did occur, as has been made known in the inserted memorandum — those who made the offering acknowledging that they had received a favor rather than bestowed one, in that they had been deemed worthy to have some share in the most holy places, in which the great mystery of piety was accomplished: God manifested in a form like ours (O the wholly ineffable wonder!);

Him, who is depicted also in Scripture as handed down from the fathers — that is, proclaimed by God — we (or rather, all that is under heaven) both confess and worship, from the very starting-point of the proclamation (for Christ could not otherwise be confessed, as you most blessed fathers teach; but the ill-named iconoclasts have denied him in a Jewish manner, as men energized by an evil spirit) — and him whom, by your God-inclined prayers, may you render gracious, O divine and sacred head, so as to turn aside the people-deceiving heresy, to kindle the sun of orthodoxy, and then also to preserve us, who rank among the least of your children, following our most blessed father and high priest.

The fathers who serve you, and our renowned brothers, both I and my brother, the most God-beloved archbishop of Thessalonica, most heartily greet;

for before your holy person — or rather, before your feet — it is more fitting to say that both of us, and all those who are with us, are blessed.

{To Theodore the innkeeper} Behold, master, the letter which you demanded; now release us from the charge.

But why not sooner, you might say? Because we were reluctant, out of a sense of modesty, to address your honor with a word of admonition and instruction.

Since you desired it, may you receive it, most beloved.

A Christian is an imitation and seal-impression of Christ, obliged to be as united to him as each member is to the head, and a branch to the vine;

for the Lord himself has said, 'I am the vine, you are the branches';

'You are the body of Christ, and members individually.'

Let us, then, O master, bear fruit — the clusters of the virtues — and let us not be fruitless;

for the Lord says, 'Every branch that does not bear good fruit is cut off and thrown into the fire' — that is, of Gehenna.

Let us fear this fearsome threat; let us glorify God in our body and in our spirit, as the apostle again commands;

for he himself also says this: 'Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!'

Let us love our own wives as our own bodies, and we shall not fall in love with a licentious body.

'Let the wife,' he says, 'see that she reverence her husband';

for by tempering fear with affection, she would live the best life.

'Children, obey your parents,' as he again says;

for it is right that parents be honored, and be cared for in their old age by their children;

for they, after God, are the cause of their children's coming into the light;

and, 'a father's blessing establishes the houses of his children, but a mother's curse uproots their foundations';

and, 'Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,' he again says, 'but bring them up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.'

So it is also the task of parents to bring peace among their children, to form and mold them with the stamp of piety.

What remains, then? That servants be subject to their masters with fear and trembling, without guile and with good courage; but also that masters, relaxing their threats, regard all their servants with an equal share of care, knowing that there is one Lord of all, God, and that here indeed slavery exists, as does marriage, but in the age to come both will be abolished, and all will be one, just as the angels.

For this reason everyone who wishes to be saved must be watchful, to live according to the commandment: not to swear, not to be distracted, not to laugh excessively, not to live luxuriously, not to jest, not to grow angry, not to fornicate, not to be drunk, not to hoard up gold;

But what then? To pray, to weep, to sing hymns, to keep the commandments as far as possible, to be content with little, to be humble-minded, to love one's neighbor, not to slander a brother, not to envy, not to be angry, to be always ready for dangers undertaken on behalf of the good, to fear no one on earth except God who is good, to be subject to the king in matters where the commandment of God is not harmed, to honor rulers as ministers of good order, to rejoice in the Lord always, and even if there should be an occurrence of griefs, to give thanks to the Lord for whatever he may providentially order concerning oneself.

These things I have, in a few words, reminded your blessed soul of, so that I might make known that I love, as a fervent friend, the man who shares my name and is pious.

And if we still live, we shall speak further, we shall exhort further, we shall counsel further that all things be reckoned as secondary to the love of God;

for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his own soul? From which may we flee, and may we find mercy on the day of judgment, and may we obtain to be with God in unspeakable joy forever.

{To Gregory, my child} What was said in the former letter concerning the most holy metropolitan of Chalcedon and our father, was said only in passing; but now it will be said more thoroughly.

Say to him, in a discourse befitting a father, what? That, in every case, according to the apostle's pronouncement, the fire will test the work of each, of what sort it is;

'If anyone's work which he has built remains, he will receive a reward; if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.'

I ask, then: is 'will be burned up' a complete annihilation, or not? And if, as is generally agreed, it is the former — just as, somewhere, following Paul, Gregory the Theologian also says — and likewise regarding the final fire, by which all our things are judged or purified, what is it that shakes the mind of the hearer into thinking that the holy Maximus did not speak well in saying that there are three restorations which the Church knows? One is that of each person according to the principle of virtue, in which he is restored, having fulfilled in himself the principle proper to virtue;

But the third [restoration], which the holy Gregory of Nyssa employs the most in his own writings, is this: the restoration of the powers of the soul, which have fallen under sin, back to that for which they were created.

For just as the whole of nature must receive at the resurrection the incorruption of the flesh which is hoped for in time, so also the powers of the soul that have been turned aside must be restored through the extension of the ages.

and having passed through all the ages and finding no rest, it comes to God who has no limit; and thus, by knowledge, not by participation in the good things, it recovers its powers and is restored to its original state — so that the Creator may not be shown to be the cause of sin.

The third restoration, then, is nothing other than this.

For concerning the other two there is no dispute, namely what has been laid down as doctrine by the apostle: that the work of sin is to be burned up, and the one who did it is to be saved, though unburned — yet in such a way that he does not partake of the good things, but recognizes the deprivation of that participation.

And it has been said quite reasonably by the Father, so that the Creator may not be shown to be the cause of sin.

For that which is from God — namely, our nature — since it has been brought forth from being, is not consumed by that fire; but that which is not from God — that is, sin — but has been fashioned by the will of the one who committed it, since it is not among the things that truly exist but merely subsists parasitically, will pass away, being unclassed among the things that are.

Thus, then, even if neither Gregory of Nyssa nor the Father Maximus should say it, yet the great Apostle has declared that there is a fiery exchange for sin, and the implication is one of restoration, as has been said by the Father — not an Origenist one, God forbid.

For there is no fellowship of light with darkness, nor any accord of saints with heresiarchs; against whom — since they misappropriate the sacred doctrines of the most divine Gregory to serve their own ill intent — both the unadulterated teaching and the exposure of their theft stand, yet not for the overthrow of what has been said before, as it seems to me.

But if something deeper should be discovered by the most holy metropolitan, we shall listen again.

since our most sacred patriarch too, having heard what was said by holy Maximus, at that time declared nothing inconsistent with it.

{To Euphrosyne, the Abbess} Having now heard that your honor has been comforted from the grief concerning your blessed mother, I gave thanks to the Lord, who has made you known both as one who genuinely loves her mother and as one who excels in love for God — the one through loving sorrow, the other through measured consolation.